Tuesday, 11 October 2011

My take on “what everyone is too polite to say about Steve Jobs”

The other day, my friend and colleague Gauri Salokhe shared this article on the “dark side” of Steve Jobs. When I finished reading it, I thought to myself, is there anyone on the face of this earth who does not have a dark side?

It made me think, if Jobs was not so demanding both of himself and of his team, if Jobs wasn’t such a perfectionist, if Jobs had not called a spade a spade, if Jobs had not challenged himself and his team, if Jobs had sweet coated every time he had to break bad news, if Jobs was not honest with himself and his team, would he have been able to lead the revolution that changed our lives and let’s face it changed humanity so radically?

I DO NOT THINK SO!

Quite frankly, I do not think Jobs aim was to live a beauty contest life or else he would not have achieved what he achieved nor served humanity the way he did. He had a vision and did everything he could to fulfill his vision. And yes, sometimes this meant harsh words, and yes, he may not have been loved by his colleague and yes he may have had a reputation of being an authoritarian. SO WHAT.

Jobs was a visionary, he was a strategist, he was a gifted human. He was one of a kind and guess what, we will not have another Jobs for years to come.

A word on charity..... giving charity is something very private. Those who sign cheques in public and use it for their self-promotion are not charitable people, they are narcissist and individuals who are very full of themselves and very empty people.

We will miss Jobs’ genius mind, his creativity and his insight. And you know what, his colleagues and team will miss his Jobs dark side and his bouts of anger when things start going wrong and when the going gets tough!!!! It will be in these moments and hard times that they will miss Jobs, realize the difference he made and that is when they will say: “If he was here, these things would not have happened, we would have done things differently”.

It is safe to say that we have all benefitted from Jobs "dark side", his obsession for perfection and his vision. The world needs more visionary people who thrive on perfection and if this means you need to have a "dark side" so be it!!!!